The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-06-04
THE END.
MARGARET OF NEW ORLEANS.

MARGARET OF NEW ORLEANS.
Margaret Haughery was poor girl of
Irish parentage, who could neither read
nor write. Yet she made q fortune OF
half million of dollars. That of itself
was enough to make any woman famous.
Few enough of the sex could do it, poor
thingsl But hear what she did with this
nobly earned money.
At one time Of the year December,
1856, she comes back to the memory
with special vividness, for then hundreds
of orphans will be enjoying the festive
season which she gave them. Only for
her love and labors, their Christmas
poor, fatherless ones-would have been
spent in want and misery. Blessed are
they who make the children happy at
Christmas time!
Margaret, the orphans friend, had her.
self been a lonely orphan. She began
life as domestic servant. But she was
naturally drawn to the alienation of hu-
man suffering. She was a devout Ro-
man Catholic; and under the direction of
the Sisters of Charity she became hos
pital nurse. While serving in this field,
one of her patients noted what good care
she took of him, and made up his mind
| that he would have her all to himself.
| He proposed marriage and was accepted.
But the husband died in their very first
years of married life. Her only child
died, too; and Margaret was left alone,
to do her life-work.
She managed the dairy in an orphan
asylum awhile. Then she opened a lit
tie eating house. But one feature of her
career is singular. With all the money
she amassed, she never entered on any
enterprise without benevolent motive
at the back. She had noted how the
Mississippi steamboat laborers-" deck
hands," they are called-were swindled
out OF their money, and how they stupe-
fed themselves with whisky, and then lay
about ooozing -kens till they were pushed
out. Margaret thought she could do
them some good. So she opened little
shop where river laborers could get cup
of good coffee and a roll for the merest
trihe.
It is not on record that she ever sue
ceeded in reforming the deck-hands to
any great extent; but she did build up in
time a great manufacturing business.
She erected a steam cracker bakery, a
building several stories in height. Her
wagons supplied bakers goods to the
city. l have seen them Myself. On the
outside were the words "Margaret's
Bread and Crackers" At first she drove
her own bread cart about the city. Money
rolled in, and she might easily have died
a millionaire.
But, most of all the orphans had her
care. She knew what it was to be left
without father or mother, and to get no
I education, not even enough to read. In
the course of her life she either founded
or aided eleven orphan asylums-C atho-
lie and Protestant, black and white, alike.
In February, 1882, this good woman
died. Never was there such funeral in
Louisiana. So far as / know she was the
only woman in America who has ever
been buried with public honors. The
governor and ex governor of the State
were among the pall-bearers. Delega-
lions from her eleven orphan asylums at
| Ao-Io1 49,. h,,riol Vha Non g.
department was in the procession. The
bells all over the city tolled, as the cor
tege moved along the streets. When it
reached the Chamber OF Commerce an
unheard-of thing happened. The men,
bers paused in their gable, and with one
accord came down to the sidewalk, and
stood reverently with uncovered heads,
while the body of Margaret was carried
past them to its rest. She was buried in
st. Louis Cemetery.
The day after her death, the building
of a monument was proposed. 1t has
been erected by the contributions OF all
classes of people in Louisiana and New
Orleans, even to the newsboys All alike
reverenced Margaret. 1t was unveiled,
July 9, 1884. The statue stands in the
square opposite the orphan asylum she
helped to build. 1t represents her, not
idealized like a classic figure, but, far
more wOrthily, broad, plain, and with the
common dress she wore, her arm encir-
cling one OF the orphans whom she loved.
"And so she died; and so the people set
Amid their heroes with proud consent,
This simple woman-crowned monument,
And carved thereon the one word-Margaret."
Sarah King. in Helping Hand.
Tears, except as q private demonstra-